At the halfway stage of the Championship campaign, the race for automatic promotion to the Premier League is already an incredibly exciting one with Leeds United top on goal difference.
Leeds returned to the top of England’s second tier in the most-recent round of fixtures thanks to a 2-0 win over Derby. A 14th win from 23 league games, and a 13th clean sheet in the process for Illan Meslier.
The Frenchman has come in for criticism of late but he reminded Leeds fans why he is no.1 with a crucial display at Stoke. Joel Piroe has also had his critics, but his brace took him to nine goals for the campaign.
The Championship is back for the 24th time on Sunday with Sheffield United, Burnley and Sunderland all in action, while Leeds go to Derby. Three of the four clubs pushing to go up could finish the day in first.
Chris Wilder sets Leeds gauntlet out as he predicts 96-point tally
Having clocked up 48 points from the first 23 games, but suffering a 2-0 home defeat to Burnley last time out, Chris Wilder has been discussing how many points he believes his side can achieve this campaign.
As per Leeds Live, Wilder discussed Sheffield United’s campaign as a whole so far after their defeat to Burnley and he believes that having accumulated 48 points from 23 games, his side can go and get 96.
“I’ve just answered a ridiculous question about results against teams in and around the top of the division. Is there a different competition, that you win when you win games against teams at the top?
“I don’t know. I had to remind him that if we replicate the first part of the season – which will take some going – we might end up on close to 100 points, and that might be enough to go up,” Wilder continued.
“Every game is massively important. I’m not daft, we’d have loved to take points off the teams in and around us and Burnley were one of them today. But we’re all right. No knee-jerk reactions to anything.”
How Leeds compare this season to last term, points and position
It looks a whole lot more encouraging this time around. Leeds were down in third position last time around, a huge 13 points behind leaders Leicester City at this stage and play-offs seemed an inevitability.
| Leeds after 23 Championship games | Points | Position | Wins | Draws | Losses | Clean sheets | GD |
| 2023-24 | 45 | 3rd | 13 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 19 |
| 2024-25 | 48 | 1st | 14 | 6 | 3 | 13 | 28 |
Which of course, they were. This season, Leeds are top and while The Whites would love a margin that Leicester had going into the second half of 2024-25, they are very well positioned to finish first or second.
A win at Derby, for the second time this month, will reaffirm Leeds’ place in first. Especially, with Burnley facing a difficult test against Middlesbrough and Sheffield United having to go to West Brom on Sunday.
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